Jury retires to consider verdicts in trial of alleged student rapist
Zhenhao Zou, 28, is accused of drugging and raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2023.
A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the trial of a Chinese PhD student who is accused of drugging and raping 10 women.
Zhenhao Zou, 28, is accused of drugging and raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2023.
The student, who moved to Belfast in 2017 to study at Queen’s University before coming to London in 2019 to do a master’s degree and then a PhD at UCL, faces a total of 35 counts.
Catherine Farrelly KC, prosecuting, told jurors when opening the case that Zou “presents as a smart and charming young man” but is “also a persistent sexual predator; a voyeur and a rapist”.
The trial at Inner London Crown Court has heard Zou’s favourite pornography involved sleeping women.
Giving evidence in his defence, Zou spoke through a Mandarin interpreter and told jurors that he watched “specialist timestop” pornography more than other genres.
Asked by his lawyer Mark Cotter KC why that particular genre appealed to him, Zou said: “I like it because the girl appears to be still and quiet when they are having sex.”
Mr Cotter then asked Zou: “What about being asleep?”
The student replied: “Yes, that’s my favourite type. But I could not find that.”
Ms Farrelly told jurors on Tuesday: “The police reviewed over 700,000 artefacts which included 1,277 videos.
“The police found absolutely no trace whatsoever of such an interest (in timestop pornography) when they went through that material.”
In his closing speech, Mr Cotter told jurors on Tuesday that Zou says he has insomnia and has “an interest in sleep sex”.
“He thinks there may be a connection,” Mr Cotter said.
Mr Cotter told jurors Zou is “a young man with money who can pay to exercise his fantasies”.
Judge Rosina Cottage KC invited the jury, of seven women and five men, to retire to start their deliberations on Wednesday morning after a trial lasting nearly four weeks.
Zou denies 11 counts of rape as well as three counts of voyeurism, 12 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and eight of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence.
